Bringing Inspiration to Comics

Featured Artist Friday: Cherry Blood Knight

Last year I met Cherry Blood Knight at the ill-fated Put-In-Play (which I made a video about). And lo and behold, the two of us were table neighbors at RathaCon this year! I asked if they would like to be highlighted today, and they said yes.

Let’s get right into the interview!

I see there’s lots of fan art in your portfolio, including in your stickers. Are there certain properties you won’t make art for, even if someone asked you to? And why?

Honestly, I’m pretty open to making art for any series, especially for my stickers and sticker commissions. I really, really enjoy making stickers of other people’s OCs though, especially Dungeons and Dragons characters (even though I’ve only done a couple so far).

What properties have you not made any art for yet, that you want to celebrate?

I have a whole list of prints and stickers that I’d eventually like to make, and I’m slowly working my way though it. The big ones that come to mind are the new She-Ra reboot, and even though technically have a Kingdom Hearts print already, I love the series so much that I really want to make more. And while it’s not exactly a property, I want to eventually make a series of prints of my own D&D characters.

Your original works have a surreal quality to them (especially your piece, “Arms”). What were the prompts that made you draw these pieces?

I’ve always been a big horror fan, and despite how cutesy a lot of my stuff ends up being I’m always in a state of wanting to draw creepy surreal stuff. One of my absolute favorite artists is Junji Ito, the manga artist behind Uzumaki and Tomie (among others), but I’m nowhere near his level of skill with linework so I just take inspiration from his concepts. I’m also a big fan of lovecraftian and cosmic horror, and surrealism is usually just an inherent part of that.

Stickers and prints are what I know you for. Are there plans to branch out into other products?

I’d love to get into making enamel pins and acrylic charms somewhere down the road. Eventually I’d also love to make some sketch books/fanzine type stuff.

Any plans for making comics, animated pieces, or other works?

There are several things, actually! I never know when to stop adding things to my plate, lol. I have a webcomic that’s been in the works for about 5 years now, and I’d like to buckle down and start publishing it before the end of 2019. I haven’t posted much of anything for it yet, but it’s working title is SubterFugue (a blend of the words subterfuge and fugue, as in “fugue state”) and I’m super excited to get it out there. I’m also working on a game called ShipMates: Marooned, a super queer dating simulator starting a non-binary main character. We put out the demo as part of a game jam last year, and while it’s been pushed to the back burner because our team shrunk quite a bit, I’d like to have it finished by the end of 2020.

You do cosplays, as well. Does cosplay influence your art? Or does your art influence your cosplay? Or are the two entirely separate from each other?

I tend to end up drawing things I cosplay from and vice versa, just because when I get into something real deep I want to dedicate every creative bone in my body to it. Outside of influences though, I definitely think sewing and making costumes has helped me learn a lot about how to draw clothes. I’ve spent a lot of time staring at costumes from games/shows and yelling about how the seams don’t make any sense.

Where can we find your work?

You can find me on Instagram (@cherrybloodknight), where I usually post my art and cosplay, and Twitter (@CherryBloodK) where I mostly just yell about how much I love dungeons and dragons and occasionally cry about WIP projects. You can also check out my storenvy, where all of my prints and stickers are available for sale, at cbkdesigns.storenvy.com. And if by chance ShipMates sounds like something you’d like to check out, you can download the demo for free at beancatstudios.itch.io/shipmates.